Filters for your bait tank

[bushwacker]

I did the same to super bait tank but I use the aquatic experts brand socks from amazon. They have draw strings and I’ve never had one fall off. After catching bait I will leave them on for the first several hours and then do just a sock change before bed. I sometimes put a bag of activated carbon in each sock and this will make the water sparkle by morning. This was a great upgrade to my tank and makes filter changes a lot less frequent and way easier. I had a slight flow issue when i first did this. It was due to the stand pipe i made being too tall and it would not flow. I then took the original stand pipe that is in the SBT filter box and it worked great. I also cut a shorter stand pipe and that allows me to run my 35 gallon tank with less water. So if i am not keeping a lot of bait i can save weight and only run 20-25 gallons of water. Before i couldn’t do this with the stock filter box the tank had to be full.

[hotdog]

You guys are the greatest.

[cmstower]

Thats pretty much my same experience put to tall of a stand pipe in had to fill the tank almost to the top, i shortened it before the next trip and works perfectly. Those are the same socks i am using, if you try them you will never go back to the old box in the sbt2!

[Yam]

Dec 10, 2019 8:47:07 GMT -5 bushwacker said:

I did the same to super bait tank but I use the aquatic experts brand socks from amazon. They have draw strings and I’ve never had one fall off. After catching bait I will leave them on for the first several hours and then do just a sock change before bed. I sometimes put a bag of activated carbon in each sock and this will make the water sparkle by morning. This was a great upgrade to my tank and makes filter changes a lot less frequent and way easier. I had a slight flow issue when i first did this. It was due to the stand pipe i made being too tall and it would not flow. I then took the original stand pipe that is in the SBT filter box and it worked great. I also cut a shorter stand pipe and that allows me to run my 35 gallon tank with less water. So if i am not keeping a lot of bait i can save weight and only run 20-25 gallons of water. Before i couldn’t do this with the stock filter box the tank had to be full.

Wow... I'm starting to feel sold. Thanks for the detail everyone! I absolutely love the idea of lowering the standpipe for situations when you don't need full capacity.

One more question. I feel that a bag of carbon needs to be protected from raw water with some type of pre filter. Otherwise the bag will clog and the carbon will do nothing. Could you put one sock inside another where the carbon is sandwiched between the 2 socks? Or maybe you could put the carbon in only after most of the slime is gone?

[coheasion]

Dec 10, 2019 20:32:32 GMT -5 Yam said:

Dec 10, 2019 8:47:07 GMT -5 bushwacker said:

I did the same to super bait tank but I use the aquatic experts brand socks from amazon. They have draw strings and I’ve never had one fall off. After catching bait I will leave them on for the first several hours and then do just a sock change before bed. I sometimes put a bag of activated carbon in each sock and this will make the water sparkle by morning. This was a great upgrade to my tank and makes filter changes a lot less frequent and way easier. I had a slight flow issue when i first did this. It was due to the stand pipe i made being too tall and it would not flow. I then took the original stand pipe that is in the SBT filter box and it worked great. I also cut a shorter stand pipe and that allows me to run my 35 gallon tank with less water. So if i am not keeping a lot of bait i can save weight and only run 20-25 gallons of water. Before i couldn’t do this with the stock filter box the tank had to be full.

Wow... I'm starting to feel sold. Thanks for the detail everyone! I absolutely love the idea of lowering the standpipe for situations when you don't need full capacity.

One more question. I feel that a bag of carbon needs to be protected from raw water with some type of pre filter. Otherwise the bag will clog and the carbon will do nothing. Could you put one sock inside another where the carbon is sandwiched between the 2 socks? Or maybe you could put the carbon in only after most of the slime is gone?

Hi Yam....I dont see why you couldnt do something like that...I honestly havent really felt the need to do more than what Im doing. I may give the nicer filters a try at some point...but the tube socks do a great job and gives me that redneck engineering panache I was looking for. 😀😀

[bushwacker]

I usually don’t put the carbon bags in until I change the socks for the night so the bulk slime is gone. I check them again in the morning and if the carbon bags are gunked up. I rinse them out and throw them back in. (Could put them in an ankle sock and toss that in as a barrier) a lot of the time I don’t even mess with putting the carbon bags in the socks do a good job.

[tiltntrim]

Where have you guys found to be the best place to get the bags of activated carbon?

[coheasion]

Either Amazon or a PetSmart type store in the aquarium section

[jmr04]

So I’ve put this system together from home a few weeks ago. Was missing a coupling I needed to make it fit my system. Remembered to bring it this time and had a question before I start using it. On the filter side should the socks be down in the water or should there be a gap between the bottom of the socks and the standing water on the filter side. Hope this question makes sense. Thanks.

[cmstower]

The filters are in the water probably around 3 to 4 inches make sure to carry a small saw or try it at home first i had to trim down my stand pipe first trip out. I had it a little to tall and it caused most of the water to go on the opposite side.

[coheasion]

Hi JMR - yes the socks are a bit different than the filter boxes in that they almost "float" in the water on the filter side and so you dont hear or see the water draining from the filters like you do with the other setups.box

I kept my other filter setup on my boat the first couple of times I ran these sock filters "just in case"...but I recently threw out my old filter box as I'm not gonna be switching back.

[mwardncsu]

Dec 11, 2019 7:29:49 GMT -5 tiltntrim said:

Where have you guys found to be the best place to get the bags of activated carbon?

You can get the empty bags and then 1/2 gal of activated carbon and make a number of them - both at the big box pet supply stores

[jmr04]

Dec 30, 2019 11:15:13 GMT -5 coheasion said:

Hi JMR - yes the socks are a bit different than the filter boxes in that they almost "float" in the water on the filter side and so you dont hear or see the water draining from the filters like you do with the other setups.box

I kept my other filter setup on my boat the first couple of times I ran these sock filters "just in case"...but I recently threw out my old filter box as I'm not gonna be switching back.

Thanks. Still having problems dialing it in. I’ve tried shortening, lengthening, and using the existing stand pipe. Getting too much water on my filter side when the bait side is full. May need to up my pump. Currently using a 500 GPH pump. What size pump are you guys using?

[coheasion]

I definitely have more water on my filter side now than I used to - but it hasnt been a problem.

[cmstower]

I also have more water on the filter side, i think its just due to fine micron filter versus the old filter box and the filter material i was using.